YOUR NAME August 21, 2019

6.046 Problem Set 1 Solutions

Collaborators: COLLABORATORS

Problem 1-1. Asymptotic Growth

Decide whether these statements are always true, never true, or sometimes true for
asymptotically nonnegative functions f and g. You must justify all your answers to receive
full credit by either giving a short proof (1-2 sentences) or exhibiting a counter-example.

(a) f (n) + g(n) = Θ(max(f (n), g(n)))

Solution:

(b) Given that f (n) = Ω(n2 ) and g(n) = Ω(n), f (g(n)) = Ω(n3 )
Solution:

(c) f (n) = O(g(n)) and f (n) = Ω(g(n))

Solution:

(d) f (g(n)) = Θ(g(f (n)))

Solution:

(e) Rank the following functions by order of growth. In other words, find an arrangement
g1 , g2 , . . . , g20 of the functions satisfying g1 = Ω(g2 ), g2 = Ω(g3 ), . . . , g19 = Ω(g20 ).
Partition your list into equivalence classes such that f (n) and g(n) are in the same class
if and only if f (n) = Θ(g(n)). (The function log∗ n is discussed on page 58 of CLRS.)

100 ) √
2(100 ( 2)log n n2 n!
X n
3n k log∗ n log(n!)
k=1

1 log∗ (log n) ln n nlog log n

n
X 1
(log n)log n 2n n log n
k=1
k
2 2
log(log∗ (n)) 2log (n)
log10 n 2n

Solution: